Senior Movement Communications Specialist - Product & Tech

Summary

The Wikimedia Foundation is looking for a Senior Movement Communications Specialist to work with product and technology teams on their collaboration with Wikimedia communities. 

The Movement Communications team is uniquely skilled at bringing people together—whether through moments to celebrate or workshops to collaborate, and while working with other departments as strategic partners and problem solvers. We work to build bridges and understanding in the movement; to help people understand our mission and celebrate their role in its success.  

The Senior Movement Communications Specialist will report to the Senior Manager or Product Ambassadors Manager on the Movement Communications Team. They will embed with the Product & Tech teams as required, working closely with their Product Manager and other staff, to craft and execute communications strategies, facilitate two-way dialog about software design and priorities, and strengthen overall trust between the Foundation and Wikimedia communities. They are involved at all stages of the product lifecycle, from bringing community perspective into product design, gathering feedback during development, supporting use and improvements during maintenance, and facilitating deprecation when needed. They tell the story of our products for a global audience, boosting use and love of Wikimedia products among Wikimedia contributors.

You are responsible for:

• Agile Comms Strategy: Craft short and medium term agile communications strategies around movement-facing Product and Technology activities in collaboration with the specialists’s manager and relevant product managers. 

• Connections: Deepen our connections to our movement of online volunteer editors through context-aware, multi-lingual and multi-cultural communications.

• Understand and Inform: Regularly meet with relevant embedded Product teams to understand project plans, designs, timelines, and challenges. Help maintain relevant FAQs, templates, newsletters, blog posts, wiki pages, and other means to address common questions efficiently.

• Movement Pulse: Monitor relevant community channels for news, incidents, and requests. Proactively respond to community questions of moderate scope about Foundation work and priorities. 

• Dialogue: Build two-way dialog between Wikimedia communities and relevant Product and Technology teams, helping teams to understand feedback and adjust product plans accordingly. This includes launching and facilitating contentious discussions with professionalism and confidence, enabling mutual understanding, clarity, and effective resolution. 

• Equity: Begin with equity and make our movement communications more inclusive by identifying and working collectively to address communication gaps among underrepresented and less vocal groups in the movement.

• Build trust: Communicate the Foundation’s movement-facing work with context to build a narrative as it relates to the Foundation’s ethos and values.

• Best Practice: Contribute to learning and knowledge exchange on best practices in Movement Communications within the team and broader Foundation.

• Support the Movement Communications team by taking up occasional assignments for other organizational priorities as per manager's indications.

Skills and Experience:

• Excellent written English and fluency with at least one other language.

• Organized, efficient, proactive, able to meet deadlines.

• Knowledge of Wikimedia communities' dynamics, cultures, and channels.

• Familiarity with the product development lifecycle and working with engineering and engineering related teams.

• Comfortable creating and leading discussions with volunteers in multiple formats, languages and cultures- such as live calls, on-wiki discussions, chat forums, and in person meetings. 

• Experience implementing successful agile communications strategies across multiple channels and platforms with collaborative outcomes.

• Emotionally mature and self-reliant; tolerates ambiguity and maintains positive, respectful professional relationships.

• Competence working in fully remote and intercultural teams, sometimes at inconvenient times of day.

• Experience of working with technical and non-technical people

Additionally, we’d love it if you have:

• Experience with advanced Wikimedia user rights (steward, checkuser, volunteer response team (VRT), admins, or other groups).

• Experience using MediaWiki software and related communication tools (on-wiki documentation, Translate extension, MassMessage, etc.)

• Personal interest and volunteer involvement in the work of specific Wikimedia communities, such as affiliates, regional groupings, or project functionaries.

About the Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Our vision is a world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. We believe that everyone has the potential to contribute something to our shared knowledge, and that everyone should be able to access that knowledge freely. We host Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects, build software experiences for reading, contributing, and sharing Wikimedia content, support the volunteer communities and partners who make Wikimedia possible, and advocate for policies that enable Wikimedia and free knowledge to thrive. 

The Wikimedia Foundation is a charitable, not-for-profit organization that relies on donations. We receive donations from millions of individuals around the world, with an average donation of about $15. We also receive donations through institutional grants and gifts. The Wikimedia Foundation is a United States 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with offices in San Francisco, California, USA.

As an equal opportunity employer, the Wikimedia Foundation values having a diverse workforce and continuously strives to maintain an inclusive and equitable workplace. We encourage people with a diverse range of backgrounds to apply. We do not discriminate against any person based upon their race, traits historically associated with race, religion, color, national origin, sex, pregnancy or related medical conditions, parental status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, or any other legally protected characteristics.

The Wikimedia Foundation is a remote-first organization with staff members including contractors based 40+ countries*. Salaries at the Wikimedia Foundation are set in a way that is competitive, equitable, and consistent with our values and culture. The anticipated annual pay range of this position for applicants based within the United States is US$90,223  to US$139,037 with multiple individualized factors, including cost of living in the location, being the determinants of the offered pay. For applicants located outside of the US, the pay range will be adjusted to the country of hire. We neither ask for nor take into consideration the salary history of applicants. The compensation for a successful applicant will be based on their skills, experience and location. 

*Please note that we are currently able to hire in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America and Uruguay.  Our non-US employees are hired through a local third party Employer of Record (EOR). 

We periodically review this list to streamline to ensure alignment with our hiring requirements. 

All applicants can reach out to their recruiter to understand more about the specific pay range for their location during the interview process.

If you are a qualified applicant requiring assistance or an accommodation to complete any step of the application process due to a disability, you may contact us at [email protected] or +1 (415) 839-6885.

More information

Applicant Privacy Policy

Wikimedia Foundation

What does the Wikimedia Foundation do?

What makes Wikipedia different from social media platforms?

Our Projects

Our Tech Stack

News from across the Wikimedia movement

Wikimedia Blog

Wikimedia 2030